No window seat on the way to Paddington, so no photos.
Still had a four hour journey north and the sleeper breakfast is not sufficient. So..
Too much chatting to take pictures. I reach my destination only ten minutes late.
North
Tag: Travel
Surrey and beyond
The cycle lanes marked out in Guildford are beyond useless. No segregation, suggesting a totally inappropriate position for the cyclists to take on the road. I would cycle at least at the line. I actually cycled in the mostly in the middle of the lane to take the decision away from the drivers, so they did not attempt to overtake at the frequent traffic islands. Of course I was hooted at, but ironically I was going faster than the motorised vehicles. Guildford suffers from pollution,
There are plenty of stations in the commuter belt.
Someone had pulled a communication alarm on a train causing all the trains to be delayed.
Two days later headed back to Oxfordshire. Dodged the rail replacement buses by travelling from Farnborough.
North to the south
Changed from the far north line to the sleeper at Inverness.
Not sure this breakfast looks appetising. It tasted ok. A few issues on the train. The lock on the cabin was not fully functioning, no pull out table in cabin, coffee machine in buffet car not working. There are some maintenance issues it appears.
Arrival in Euston is 20 minutes late due to work in the line. I had been forewarned by text.
Then headed back east
I witnessed an old couple falling over on the escalator just after getting on. while they were heading up. I was heading down. A woman at the top shouted for someone to hit the emergency stop. A hapless woman holding a dog appeared transfixed and unable to hit the button. After what appeared to be an age someone finally hit the button. Chaos. No staff about.
No fly zone …. Paused
Due to work commitments I had to fly back to Scotland. Still managed to complete the journey by rail.
Very early start to get the 0740 flight to Heathrow. A trip involving a tram and the airport bus to Budapest Airport. Budapest is a fairly pleasant airport compared to the nightmare that is Heathrow. Then onto Inverness Airport, which now has its own railway station. Inverness airport is relatively pleasant.
Not great flying but almost halved the carbon footprint compared to flying both ways.
A 45 min wait for the 12 min train ride to Inverness. Then a further wait before heading to the far north.
In contrast to the other train lines the vegetation is really close to the track.
A spectacular display as the sun sets on the journey north.
München to Budapest
I set off early from the hotel to allow for the ongoing work on the S Bahn. Which meant I arrived well ahead of time at the Hauptbahnhof. So purchased some bread based snacks for breakfast and the journey plus some fruit.
The train was an Austrian train, OBB, starting in Germany and ending in Hungary.
The Danube
St Pancras to München via Brussels
Early start at St Pancras means that I should get to München at a sensible time of 6pm local time. The ticket told me to be at St Pancras at ten to six. An early start.
We came to a stop. Announcements came periodically as the delay lengthened. The reason was eventually announced. A train had broken down in the tunnel so only one line was available. Trains were being sent in one direction and then the direction was being switched. Eventually we got going.
Eventually we made it to…
The next train left slightly late, a DB IC, heading for Frankfurt, but I was due to change at Frankfurt airport.
The ICE got further delayed so I bailed out at Köln, seeing that I could catch a slightly delayed train heading to München. This proved to be a good move as the train was mobbed at Frankfurt. I had a seat.
Arrived at München around 9 local time. Three hours late although the final train was actually early . A long day.
Met some interesting people on the way. The Portuguese lawyer working for the EU who can speak about 7 languages, and the group returning from a family wedding in Eritrea. All evidently having grown up in Germany as shown by German being their preferred language.
Reading to St Pancras via Didcot
A detour to Didcot.
Arrived at Paddington and to the closest tube station with a branch of the circle line. No trains running. Backtracked to the other circle line branch and finally caught the tube. It’s far simpler and quicker on the bike.
UK north coast to South coast and back a bit
The far north is a joy when the views are clear and the days are long.
The breakfast did leave me hungry.
15 mins of delay at Waterloo due to incoming train being late, there was an obstacle on the line.
I had to get myself into the front five carriages as the train splits at Bournemouth.
I am about to start my minor backtrack.
Thurso to Bucharest and back- the summary
The journey
The map taken from the Interrail app shows just how far the journey was, but misses the far north line and the detour to Oxfordshire.
From the Interrail app: 5784 km distance
15 trains on the Interrail ticket, 20 in total.
Seven countries.
Weather
Sunny almost throughout, but a big variation in temperature. Highest ,around 14 centigrade in Augsburg, lowest -10 in Bucharest.
Food
The food was good, but had to get creative in the meat centric countries. I had my first experience of a Lebanese restaurant in Bucharest, the very good Coin-Vert Libanez.
I had to fight through the snow and ice to get to it. A week later I had my second Lebanese restaurant experience in Paris.
Plenty of good food on this trip.
Hotels
I stayed in three Premier Inn plus rooms, three varieties of Ibis: budget, styles and no moniker, a Radisdon Individuals Schiller Park in Linz and Ramada by Wyndham in Bucharest.
Best bed:Premier Inn plus
Best shower: Premier Inn plus
Best view: Ramada by Wyndham
Best location: Hotel Schiller Park- in central location near the railway station.
Best breakfast: Ramada by Wyndham
Best rooms: Premier Inn plus
Most expensive: Premier Inn St Pancras
Best check out times: Ibis / check out by noon.
I like the simplicity of the Ibis Budget.
Locations
Both Augsburg and Linz were amazing places to visit. Smaller and not as busy as Vienna but interesting buildings and history. Bucharest lacked the beautiful buildings but the lake was beautiful.
Travelling by train emphasised the change in landscape and buildings. Farmhouses are tiny and ramshackled in Romanian but huge and well maintained in Austria and Germany.
People
As well as meeting the natives of each country that I visited I was surprised to meet people from so many other countries. I had conversations with Qataris, Russians, Albanians, Norwegians, New Zealanders, Moldovans, Canadians, Taiwanese and probably more. Talking to Austrians in German with their local accents was a joy, including a woman in her 90s from Vienna,
Cycling
Cycling was awful in Bucharest, but faster than cars. Driving in Bucharest also looks awful. Paris cycle way provision is good in Paris, but blocked by vehicles on the Sunday. Vienna was busy, Augsburg pleasant. I heard a tram hitting a car in Vienna and saw the massive crumpled side of the car, the tram just drove off. The closest I came to an accident was Inverness, where a car was being driven at 60 mph in a 30 zone, as I was turning right. The bike gave a good way to cross cities between stations and to get to hotels. It was also a great luggage trolley.
Inverness to Thurso- the last leg
Yesterday there had been issues with the far north line, with rail replacement buses provided, but today the train seems to be running.
Due to the early start Premier Inn provided a pack breakfast.
The train arrives almost on time.
Insight 